This invention relates to rowing devices that rest in boat or canoe hulls and specifically to any removable apparatus, which in addition to supporting oars, enables leg movement of an oarsman to help propel a watercraft.
The following patents define structures, which would appear to be germane to the patentability of the disclosed invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 230,690; E. A. Bennett
U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,637; E. Kaiser
U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,950; Martin
The patent to E. A. Bennett illustrates the use of a foot board integral with a sliding oar rigger.
E. Kaiser teaches a method for supporting oars to a base. The base comprises a track and a movable seat. Martin further delineates the state of the art by introducing the use of an adjustable oar rigger.
In the aforementioned references where movable seats were germane to patentability, the oar supports emanated from two longitudinally extending beams. The beams, being parallel to the longitudinal axis of a watercraft, supported a seat at one end. At the other end, the beams were turned up to form a foot support.
In the present invention, oar riggers are secured directly to the upper part of the structure where the feet of an oarsman are supported. By directly securing oar riggers to the upper part of the structure, the generation of bending moments within the structure is minimized. The frame can therefore be constructed of a lightweight material without having to sacrifice strength. Furthermore, the rowing apparatus of the present invention is advantageous in that the bindings for the feet of an oarsman can be simultaneously released by a manually operated control line. Finally, the disclosed invention has the advantage of not being attached to a watercraft hull. The rowing apparatus can be easily removed from a watercraft since the frame is held to the lower interior hull surface of a watercraft by means of an oarman's weight.